Warehouse fire erupts in Russian city of Georgiyevsk

A fire broke out at a military equipment storage facility in the city of Georgiyevsk, Russia.

Andrey Zaitsev, the head of the Georgiyevsk city district, said that the fire occurred in a 300 sq m warehouse.

The fire on the territory of the military unit has already been extinguished.

According to the head of the city district, no work had been carried out in the outbuilding, and the electricity had been cut off.

“No casualties were reported. The possible cause of the spontaneous combustion is high air temperature,” said Andrey Zaitsev.

This 92nd engineering base belongs to military unit 29235. It stores various military equipment.

In particular, the base stores combat engineering vehicles. In Georgiyevsk, the equipment is stored in the open air.

As previously reported, Russia is now actively removing mothballed military equipment from storage bases.

For example, since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Russia has removed from storage more than 40% of Soviet tanks and combat vehicles at the largest mothballed military equipment base, Vagzhanovo, in Buryatia.

Five months before the Russian invasion, about 3,840 pieces of equipment were stored at Vagzhanovo, and by May 2023, this number had dropped to 2,270.

Thus, over the past year and a half, about 1,570 tanks and combat vehicles have been removed from the base, with most of the equipment (32%) leaving Vagzhanovo after mobilization began in September 2022. Some of the tanks removed from storage are undergoing in-depth modernization, with additional protection, more modern engines, optoelectronic systems, and thermal imagers, before being sent to the frontline. Others are dismantled for spare parts.

As previously reported, in 2023, the Russian invasion forces in Ukraine began to receive reactivated T-54 and T-55 tanks.